Scotland expands into space

Sunday 19th November 2017

Craig Clark of Clyde Space gets some company with Birdi

Craig Clark, founder and CEO of Clyde Space, a growing small-satellite specialist company based in Glasgow is widely regarded as the leading CubeSat company worldwide. It has supplied systems to more missions than any other organisation. In addition an average of 5 spacecraft per month are being produced in its cleanroom facility (2016). He is now being joined by Bird.i which has secured £2.6m in funding for Bird.i Reports note that the U.S. military is eyeing a technology experiment that could lead to a new "satellite constellation" being focused on detecting and tracking new classes of ultra-fast, maneuvering missiles, which intelligence agencies say are an emerging threat to USA forces.

Clyde Space, of course, is now about more than just CubeSats, as it also supply a range of spacecraft subsystems for missions of 1kg up to 5,000 kg, meaning it has the versatility and deep understanding of how to make space products that work. This approach has enabled the company to grow from a standing start in 2005 to over 70 engineering and manufacturing staff at the start of 2016.

Now Glasgow's only French Space Entrepreneur at start up Bird.i has secured £2.6m in funding. Well done@corentin_guillo @hibirdi @scotent and the new space concern adds acceleration to Scottish space activity now, with Bird.i being a $2.6 million investment round led by @AcceleratedDV and with a new investor @Concrete_VC joining @Frontline @scotent and @SatAppsCatapult to scale our product portfolio and continue to expand globally.